Bay Area earthquake damages Napa County Airport

Clean-up is still underway in the wake of the 6.0 magnitude earthquake that shook the Bay Area early Sunday morning, causing at least two hundred injuries, power outages for thousands of customers and damage to many buildings, the Mercury News reports.

In a tweet, officials at the Port of Oakland reported that the South Napa Earthquake (it already has a name), which had its epicenter about 9 miles south of Napa, did no damage to the Oakland International Airport.

But damage was sustained at the Napa County Airport.

“The earthquake blew out most of the windows in the Napa air traffic control tower and the facility is unusable,” Ian Gregor, the Pacific Division spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said in an e-mail to USA TODAY earlier today. “It could take several weeks to get new windows manufactured and installed.”

Gregor said while there is no obvious damage to the structure, “We will have an engineering assessment done to ensure it is safe. We are also working to secure the equipment inside to prevent it from being damaged by wind or other weather.”

Gregor added that for now the airport will operate as it does when the control tower is closed at night.

“Pilots will get takeoff and landing clearances from Oakland Center, and communicate with each other on the uniform airport frequency to broadcast their positions and intentions,” he said.

He added that efforts are underway to set up a temporary tower to Napa until the permanent tower is repaired and explained that controllers use temporary towers, “which are small cabs on the top of trailers,” at some air shows, while helping out with wildfire fighting operations, and when a permanent tower at a general aviation airport is unusable due to damage or refurbishment or modernization.